Saturday, 27 December 2008

Laugh along with Trad

Keysar Trad is continuing his comedy routine, his latest utterance being described thusly in the SMH:

LOCAL councils around Australia have been warned they risk imposing a "ghetto mentality" on the Islamic community if they continue to oppose religious projects such as the controversial proposals to build Islamic schools at Camden and Bass Hill

What a hoot.

Sydney is a collection of ghettos. People congregate in areas where they feel comfortable with their neighbours. Bellevue Hill is described as "BellJew Hill", for obvious reasons. I should not need to tell you why I call this area "Five Wog". Chatswood has become "Chatswoo". Redfern is full of blackfellas. Tongans get together with other Tongans and squeeze everybody else out. Earl's Court in London has always been known as the kangaroo ghetto due to the number of Australians inhabiting that quarter. Paddington is a gay ghetto.

And Muslims congregate with other Muslims. Go out to Lakemba and tell me it isn't so. To say that this is the fault of councils is ridiculous. This is not Soviet Russia or Aparthied South Africa - you don't need a permit to live here or there. You live where you like (within the affordability and availability restrictions of the free market).

The ghetto mentality is all around us. In many cases, it starts to dissolve after the 2nd or 3rd generation, with the kids moving away for work, housing affordability or other issues. Ghettos do not last forever in our society, unless they are propped up by government (like Redfern). Immigrants move to a certain area because it is cheap. A generation or two later, it starts to gentrify and get more expensive, so the kids move somewhere cheaper. They scatter, and other people move in from elsewhere. Eventually, the entire character of the suburb changes, and the ghetto is just a distant memory.

Apart from government stupidity causing a ghetto to continue to exist, the only other life support reason I can see is for a local demagogue to maintain a ghetto by fear - fear of outsiders. Keysar Trad is bloody brilliant at doing that, constantly playing the victim whilst being nourished at the government teat. Here we see him playing the old card of "western imperialists against downtrodden Muslims".

I laughed at this line:

Mr Trad said the centre, which took 3½ years to be approved by Penrith City Council, will participate in a number of multi-faith and community events, such as Clean Up Australia Day.

How many journalists attending this event bothered to ask him how many non-Muslim community events he has worked on in the last year, such as Clean Up Australia Day? I'm assuming of course that Jonathan Dart attended the event, and didn't just regurgitate a press release.

I doubt that Keysar and his mates have picked up much trash over the years, because I regularly ride through Auburn, and it is a tip. Wikipedia describes Auburn thus:

Auburn prides itself as having one of the largest refugee communities in Australia. The traditionally Anglo-celtic and southern European population has slowly been replaced by a high percentage of immigrants from Turkish, Lebanese and Vietnamese backgrounds. Auburn also has fast growing Iraqi, Iranian, Afghan, Sudanese and Chinese communities. The five most prominent religions in Auburn are Islam (40.9%), Catholicism (15.3%), No religion (10.3%), Buddhism (6.8%) and finally Anglican (3.6%).

[This by the way is fascinating - Several Sydney rappers/hip-hop artists have begun coining the phrase "Representing Southside Auburn to the fullest" in underground records and onstage to indicate their solidarity with the suburb.]

Auburn Council, which covers a wider area, says that the average for the entire council area is 25% Muslim, so even if you don't believe Wikipedia, you can always check the Bureau of Statistics, which says the same thing.

Anyway, Auburn is one of the filthiest, yuckiest, nastiest areas that I have ever had the displeasure to cycle through. I never gave the religion of the area a second thought until Keysar brought it up, and then I did some searching. It's always been just one of many suburbs that I ride through.

Most Sydney-siders never get to see the place, because a motorway goes past it now, and motorists are shielded from the suburb by a thick belt of vegetation. But if you get up close and personal with the place, as you do on a bike, you quickly notice just how badly the locals treat it.

You could have a "Clean Up Auburn" event once a week, and it would still take all year to remove the rubbish from the streets, parks, canals and whatnot around the suburb. The litter in some places is so thick, I used to wonder if I had ridden by accident into a recycling depot.

Face it Keysar, if Auburn Council did what our council does, and dropped of Clean Up Australia sacks at points where there was a large amount of rubbish, the only thing your menfolk would do with them is cut two holes in each one and jam them over the heads of their women. I have seen how much interest your mob have in picking up litter (or failing to drop it in the first instance), and I reckon most would rather tongue kiss a dog than pick up a chip packet.

5 comments:

I agree. I posted on the Winds of Jihad item about Trad's Ghetto statement.

Bankstown, Mt Lewis, Greenacre, I know these places look like pigstys and it's a cultural thing. They don't give a rats' arse about how their place looks. Rubbish strewn around the place, lawns unmown. The rubbish can vary from the old stove which stopped working and has just been dumped in the front yard, to usual domestic rubbish like your chip packets.

Australia's being turned into a tip. You should see it out here.

I had a friend from the states (NY) visit me in Sydney/Bankstown in the early 80s and she was amazed at how clean Sydney was, and the suburbs.

I don't understand what your premise is. Are you trying to say that areas that are predominantly Muslim, are more polluted than other areas? Or are you talking about the apathy of Auburn council, and other local councils?

Or are you talking about the Muslim community's right to religious educational institutions, the same way that Christian, Catholic and Jewish children have?

If this is the case, then you can't talk about ghetto mentalities, and then complain about the fostering of extremism within religious communities.

Of course the government is restricting the rights of Muslim communities. I can understand why the proposal to have a Muslim school in Camden was rejected - it's a farming community that is made up of 5th and 6th generation Australians. The school would "accidentally" burn to the ground before the first bell of the school year tolled.

But why not Bass Hill? There already exists a predominantly Muslim community, and it is close to Blacktown as well, so Muslim families who desire a religious education for their children would finally have somewhere to send them.

As for the sack-cloth comment, no one is forcing orthodox Muslim women to wear head-scarves. This isn't the Middle East. If they desire a more secular religious experience, they can choose not to wear one (even at the displeasure of their family/community.) We do have a fairly functional legal system which is there for the protection of all people, if such women are scared for their security. Like you said, people are free to "disperse" to whatever area they choose (money allowing).

Anyway I'm still not really sure what your point is.

But I'm sure that one improvement - would be Auburn Council getting off it's ass and doing something! (Even if the people living there just happen to be considerably "messier" than people in every other area of Sydney, or Australia for that matter). Statistically it's improbable that all of the non-hygiene friendly people moved to the same area. It could just be that Auburn Council does nothing but sit on it's ass and have meetings, chewing up funds that are desperately needing for things like - rubbish removal, school, libraries, and restoration of local facilities, encouraging development in the area.

It also could due to the fact that the state government don't see Auburn Council as a revenue generating area and thus they aren't receiving enough funds to even have a clean up to begin with.Auburn has a relatively small population compared to areas like Campbelltown and Wollongong. That in itself makes it difficult to get funds, but the least Auburn Council could do is give the appearance of making an effort. For an area which houses 2-3 families in small homes, I'm sure waste management is a big issue.

My point is that people like Keysar will say what they think the "liberal" press wants to hear (like participating in clean up Australia day) in order to butter them up, when they really have no intention of actually doing so. They are mouthing the words, and the media never calls them on it. The state of a suburb like Auburn is proof of that.

As for the council sitting on its arse, that may be true - but if the people of the electorate cared, they'd vote them out and install some cleaner-uppers.

As for getting funds for a cleanup, Keysar was talking about voluntary activities that require no government funding. I walk around the block each week picking up all the rubbish in our street - I keep our patch clean, and it only takes 10 minutes max per week. No council involvement. No government involvement. No external funding. Just old fashioned volunteering and self motivation.

My point is this - beware of weasel words. I don't particularly care about the building of a mosque here or there, but I do care about the propaganda that gets broadcast to support the case.

the land at Bass Hill was acquired illegally, the land at Camden was bought against legal advice. They bought the land, now they are trying to have the zoning changed to suit themselves. When you have unlimited Saudi oil dollars at your disposal, you believe you can force your way anywhere.

Luckily for Australia, the locals still believe in fighting for what they know is right.

"Statistically it's improbable that all of the non-hygiene friendly people moved to the same area."

Prove it. The last refuge of the bleeding heart is to quote statistics that have never been documented. It's the "vibe", of the thing. They "feel" it should be this way.

Why the bloody hell should Auburn council clean people's yards? Let the filth clean their own. The council provides garbage removal on a weekly, and Bi-yearly basis. Do you expect them to go into scummy yards as well?

Have you ever been to Bass Hill, Bankstown, Lakemba, Punchbowl and indeed, even Camden?